#project 404

This is USAF Captain Robert A. Kain — Raven 52, one of the most badass forward air controllers who ever flew in America’s denied war.

While the world watched Vietnam on the evening news, Kain and a tiny band of volunteer pilots were waging the Secret War in Laos. Stripped of uniforms, dog tags, and any official acknowledgment, they flew unmarked O-1E Bird Dogs (and U-17s) painted neutral gray. No U.S. flags. No rescue if they went down. Just blue jeans, aviator shades, and pure guts.

From September 1970 to April 1972, Kain spent roughly a year in Laos (after six months in Vietnam) as part of the ultra-classified Steve Canyon Program / Project 404. Low and slow over hostile jungle, he marked enemy positions with smoke and Willie Pete rockets so fighter-bombers and gunships could hammer Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese forces, all in support of Royal Lao troops and General Vang Pao’s Hmong warriors.

They called them the Ravens. One of the highest casualty rates of any U.S. unit in Southeast Asia. They lived by their own rules, flew by the seat of their pants, and saved lives that history books still pretend didn’t exist.

Kain later said it simply: “My call sign was Raven 52. I volunteered for the Steve Canyon program… the name of the secret program we were all assigned to.”

This photo? Pure legend. Armed to the teeth, helmet in hand, waving like he owned the sky, because in that moment, he did.

Hello folks!

Figured that it was about time that I attempted some kind of writblr introduction post, since I’ve been leaning more into that side of things in recent years. This is still my catch-all blog, though, so there is a lot here that is not just writing. I do have a dedicated writing blog, but it is for my 18+ content only and posts are sporadic at best. (TheTemptressWater, if anyone is interested. Please, no minors on that one.)

You can call me Water, you may also see people calling me K’ika (with or without the apostrophe) — either is fine! Or TheGoddessWater always works too if you prefer. 

I write both original fiction and fanfiction, though I don’t tend to talk about my fanfiction in any great detail here. Or anywhere, really. It’s very niche stuff and I tend to vaguely mention it and then drop a chapter or story to AO3 with very little fanfare. Anyway, that’s to say that if I’m chatty about a project, it’s mostly likely an original.

My primary genre is fantasy, though you might not realize that to look at my current projects. I do also play around in the sci-fi end of that spectrum and I do occasionally (very occasionally) brush up against horror, but that's usually incorporated into other projects as opposed to genre I write standalone.

I currently have three main projects on the go, and I flit between them like a hummingbird with commitment issues.

MIADHACHAIN LEGACY

Usually just abbreviated as ML, Miadhachain (said “me-otch-in”) Legacy is a light sci-fi, political dystopia. Originally planned as a quartet, ML has currently been stripped down to the foundation and the plot is undergoing some restructuring. The main players here are: Zaria Miadhachain – the disowned daughter of a corrupt senator, focused on getting back what she lost however she can; and Adair Rios — a disillusioned former slum brat and soldier turned bodyguard charged with keeping Zaria alive and well while she’s taking bigger and bigger risks. Aiming to get a Zero Draft of this one started (and done) this year.

TALENTLESS/WILD CARD

Most often just referred to as Talentless, this is a queer fantasy duology (with the potential for something like an anthology of shorter tie-in works) set in a world rife with elemental magic. War is coming for the Kindom of Prylea. Following the sudden disappearance of the Prylean Queen, and the equally abrupt failure of the King’s health, one-time allies have turned hostile attention to the once prosperous country in light of its presumed weakness and strategic location. Amidst this upheaval, a lone knight is dispatched to find a missing mage who maybe the last person who can stabilize Prylea once more. Main characters here are James Gallagher and Maggie Blackwill, but I also talk about and play around with the other characters a ton. Currently working on completing a full first draft of this project.

PROJECT 404

Hello again Anon-who-is-likely-not-Santa-but-whom-I-shall-treat-as-such!

I'll use all my projects for this answer, since they all have something creature-y in them.

Talentless:

Truly depends on which character we're talking about! Have a random selection of folks who have encountered weird critters.

For Maggie, it's probably the magic parasite. That's a blobular little monster from the astral realms that eats magic. Literally impossible to just stumble upon in nature, since it has to be summoned. And boy does Maggie hate that thing.

For Rui, the most distressing creature he ever encounters is the thing that promises that it's not a kumiho, but also checks enough boxes to be a kumiho that he has some doubts about the validity of those claims. Even though he very desperately does not want it to be a kumiho because he likes keeping his liver inside him, thank you very much.

For Fraise, it's that being that might have been real and might have been a dream and definitely might have been a goddess. Except that she didn't really act all that "goddessy" at the time. Whatever else she was, she was friendly!

Someone undoubtedly would say the undead deer, but so many people who meet the deer have also seen weirder stuff out there.

Miadhachain Legacy

Fewer creature creatures to pick from in ML, but Zaria would probably say that those government science projects she meets count. The man turned petri-dish is pretty unsettling, as is the qualmless cyborg. Not great times there.

Project 404

Tagged by @forthesanityofstorytellers here. Thanks, friend! I've actually got a bunch of picrews made already, so I can actually do this tag in a timely manner.

Figured I'd do the main characters from my three original fiction projects here.

First up: Project 404

The power trio! We've got Glenn, Evadne, and Cal. Glenn's our very secretive and paranoid protagonist. Evadne is our secondary main character who is trying to get Glenn to open up as part of a project. Cal is Evadne's rich, socialite boyfriend who sometimes funds the shenanigans these three get up to.

Next up: Miadhachain Legacy

The main couple: Adair and Zaria! Technically, Adair's hair should probably be brown like he dyes it for most of the first book, because he's weird about it, but I prefer giving him his actual ginger.

Also, two of the ML keystone characters: Valen and Jance. They're not mains, but things do tend to crumble if you try to take them out. Sidebar: I love this picrew of Jance because it's the closest approximation I've found to how carved up he gets.

And last but not least: Talentless!

Just doing the main characters here because this would get looooong if I did all the folks I've made picrews for.

James, Robward and Maggie. The clothes are overly modern, considering they're fantasy characters, but still.

Hello, cupid, welcome! This is a great question! I'm going to break my self-imposed rule and use some folks that you can't have met yet, because I'm going to use all three projects' protagonists for this answer.

Talentless

Maggie: She's so sure that she wants to travel a little and then come back to her tiny hometown where she'll probably take after one of her moms, or maybe apprentice to the local blacksmith and then there's a moment when she's in Toalen with James that everything clicks. She wants this life, in the big city, where she can be herself and do something without following the plan someone else set for her.

James: James' ideal future looks so much like what he already has, he thought he was already there; his squad keeping his back, the love and support of his friends, a job he loves, a couple of cats... He never thought he'd need anything more. At least until Maggie showed up.

Project 404

Glenn: It's only a flash of a moment for Glenn, a blink of a longing for a world he'll never see. He, Evadne, and Cal are having dinner, and laughing, with no cares in the world. And in that moment he knows, that he'd give anything for his future to look like that -- friends, good food, and the promise of more laughter.

Miadhachain Legacy

Zaria: Ever since she was cut off from the Miadhachain family resources, Zaria has been determined to get back to that life. She wants the power and the respect she was promised as a child - the things that were stolen when she was ransomed to the Bardricks. Now if only those pesky notions of what a life with Adair might look like would stop distracting her from trying to get there.

- the real Santa was the friends we made along the way

Hello Santa who I definitely have no idea the real identity of!

I know that I've actually answered this question before, but it's a really fun one!

Project 404

For Project 404 I think a hoodie with Glenn's DZ designation on the left breast and his Oracle logo on the back would be really cool. I keep picturing the hoodie in an olive/khaki/hunter green, even though that wouldn't make much sense for the setting. The Deezee Hazsuits are usually off-white or tan, but dangit, I think the green would look really nice.

Pom logo decals/vinyl stickers could also be fun. These would be like the stickers that always come with or used to come with Apple products - fun for sticking on pretty much anything, but funny to stick on tech.

Miadhachain Legacy

I have a really hard time coming up with merch ideas for ML, but maybe little figurines of the characters would be fun!

Also, a Gin Run tour shirt would be really neat. Specifically the TAC tour, because of course I am the dork who knows the names of the fictional albums for the made up band that the little imaginary man in my head created. A non-album specific Gin Run band shirt would also be fun merch.

Talentless

Talentless feels like it has the most merch potential. I love acrylic charms and would love to see one that's got James' sword, Maggie's flames, and The Daffodil on it.

Jewellery could also be really fun with Talentless. I have a friend who made me Maggie's rings and Marmaduke's faerie charms for two separate occasions. Rui's bangles? They'd probably look cool as heck.

There's an artist at my local comic expo who does art that looks like stained glass, and I would love to see her do prints of the Deities of Talentless, whether that's The Two, The Three, The Quintology, The Mother, or the Quintology + Spice. (There is disagreement about how many goddesses there are in Talentless.)

Also given...santas. Am I welcome to keep coming around? I can stop if you want.

But for now, how would your OC's react to an anonymous stranger randomly bearing gifts but not finding out who it was (like this)? Who would they think it was? A friend? A stranger? A ghost? A spirit? Santa??? Would they get angry/pleasantly surprised or react another way?

Hello Santa!

By all means, please keep stopping by if you wish! It's a lot of fun having you visit :D (Also the "Oh my god - WHO IS THIS" is truly very amusing).

I'm going to use characters I don't usually use for answers here, mostly because I feel like they fit best. So you're getting folks from Project 404.

Glenn -- Oh, Glenn. He would lose his mind. And not in a good, fun way. The absolute terror that that would invoke in him would either leave him catatonic and hiding in the corner, or adding (another) deadbolt to his front door. He wouldn't even necessarily think about who it was, so much as the message behind it. And the message he would get off of such an action would be "I know where you are and I know how to get to you. You will never be safe." Honestly, that's basically "How to Traumatize Glenn 101" -- get all up in his private space without prompting, or identifying yourself.

Evadne -- Quiet, pleasantly surprised, most likely. She'd probably assume that it's something Cal sent to or left for her that he neglected to put a name on, or something from her uncle that he's giving her for an event that he forgot the date of. Her Birthday? Well, that was months ago, but her uncle's scatterbrained enough to think that it's now.

Cal -- Anonymous gifts are hardly a matter of course for Cal, but he's also likeliest to be completed unfazed by them. The guy lives by one of those algorithm-driven subscription models. Of course random things just show up. If it's something he's never needed before, then he'd be most likely to assume that it's been given by someone he knows. Or a gift passed along from one of his mother's charity gala contacts who just feels like they have to include all of her children in the gifting. Nothing strange to see here, just another item that he may or may not need in the near future.

Tagged a little while ago by @tryingtimi! Thanks, hon~!

Premise: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous and tag as many people as you have WIPs. People send an ask with the title that most intrigues them, then you post a snippet or tell them something about it!

I...do not have enough writer friends to tag according to those rules 🤣 Ah well. Tagging with no pressure (since I know most have been tagged recently): @did-i-do-this-write, @forthesanityofstorytellers, @tc-doherty @kingragnarok-writes, @cee-grice, @bloodlessheirbyjacques

Honestly, it's probably easier to just post the screenshots of the kind of chaos my Dabble folders are. (Censoring one project's subtitle because honestly the subtitle is a spoiler for my TTRPG campaign and one of my players follows me here.)

Also my folders stashed on Ellipsus:

(Not pictured - The lone file simply marked "Prologued")